Tuesday, 30 August 2011

Gail Dendy is the author of seven poetry collections, the latest being Closer Than That, published by Dye Hard Press. She was first published by Harold Pinter in 1993, with her subsequent collections appearing in SA, the UK and the US. Her poetry and, more recently, short stories, are regularly published in journals and anthologies. An internationally trained dancer, she helped pioneer Contemporary Dance in SA between the late 1970s and the early 1990s. Other passions are environmental- and animal-rights issues. She lives in Johannesburg with her husband, pets, a law library, and a huge rock ’n roll collection.... Read more at The Dye Hard Interviews

Thursday, 25 August 2011

"...the average person, while he thinks he is awake, is actually half asleep. By 'half asleep' I mean that his contact with reality is a very partial one; most of what he believes to be reality (outside or inside of himself) is a set of fictions which his mind constructs. He is aware of reality only to the degree to which his social functioning makes it necessary. He is aware of his fellowmen inasmuch as he needs to cooperate with them; he is aware of material and social reality inasmuch as he needs to be aware of it in order to manipulate it. He is aware of reality to the extent to which the goal of survival makes such awareness necessary.... The average person's consciousness is 'false consciousness', consisting of fictions and illusion, while precisely what he is not aware of is reality. .." Erich Fromm

Monday, 15 August 2011

Gail Dendy is one of South Africa’s most unmistakable and unique literary voices. The singing quality of her poetry soars and swoops, transporting the reader into a world of glittering magical realism. In this book a moon ripens in the window ‘whole and lemony once more’, mothers express longing and love, the sun and moon argue, there are gypsy women, and a fantasy piece with Shakespearean characters. This book is truly alive, presented in language that ‘rings like a gong from here to the far end of the world’.

Gail Dendy has grown in stature as a poet … Her poems are intriguing and at times playful, and she is in complete control of her subtle lyrical gift and delicate technique. Gus Ferguson

Gail Dendy moves across the landscape of a remembered past, and fictionalises into imagined other lives … An important voice in South African poetry, Dendy’s words are delicately polished jewels. Arja Salafranca

Friday, 12 August 2011

For an anthology of short stories, The Edge of Things includes both depth and scope, with several writers who seem (to varying degrees) unafraid of entering new literary territory. Published by Dye Hard Press, selected and edited by Arja Salafranca, these 24 stories are a special fiction edition of the literary journal Green Dragon.

At the launch, facilitated by Salafranca, a predominantly female group of writers clustered around a podium and steered the familiar how-and-why, question-and-answer session towards more spontaneous conversation. During the evening writers explained how they found inspiration while also skilfully adapting their writing to the short story format...Read more here

CD of poetry by Ira Cohen, who reads poems such as 'Imagine Jean Cocteau', 'Song to Nothing', 'Tokyo Birdhouse' and 'From The Moroccan Journal 1987'. Includes music by Angus Maclise, Don Cherry, and Ornette Coleman. There is also a recording of the Master Musicians of Joujouka made by Paul Bowles and Brion Gysin in 1961.

Wednesday, 03 August 2011

Last Thursday night saw the Cape Town launch of The Edge of Things, an anthology of South African short fiction selected by me and published by Dye Hard Press. This followed a month after the Jozi launch at Love Books in Melville.

Hosted by The Book Lounge, the launch was a chance for me to meet some of the Cape Town writers with whom I’d previously only had email dealings, as well as a chance to catch up with writing friends...Read more here

CD of recordings by musician and poet
Angus MacLise (1938-1979). An early friend of Piero Heliczer (who published MacLise's first poetry collection), MacLise worked with Le Monte Young and was the original drummer for the Velvet Undergound. He also worked with Daniel Moore in the Floating Lotus Magic Opera Company in Berkeley, late 1960s, eventually living in Kathmandu, where Ira Cohen published his works such as Subliminal Report and The Cloud Doctrine.

Dye Hard Press

Welcome to Dye Hard Press

Dye Hard Press is a small publisher in Johannesburg, South Africa. Since 1994 it has published more than 20 titles, including work by Alan Finlay, Phillip Zhuwao, Arja Salafranca, Gus Ferguson, Kobus Moolman, Gail Dendy, Allan Kolski Horwitz and Khulile Nxumalo.